Could Apple be looking to create a social network? Apple created computers for people. Then they created portable music devices which became iconic with digital music. They added a set of touch screen devices which would of seemed science fiction only a decade ago.
Apple contribute to a huge amount of our technological lives. Even 'non-Apple' users enjoy the latest movie trailers which are often distributed by Apple using Quicktime and many Windows users organise their music with iTunes. But where next for this technological giant. A sceptic will say that the bubble will eventually burst and Apple's fortune will change. It's speculated that their glory days are over following the death of Steve Jobs and the increasing strength of the competition in the mobile device markets. But more optimistic folk may point out that Apple never stay still and that new products and services will come online to fuel the frenzy associated with Apple fan boys.
They already have numerous services wrapped up under the iCloud brand. These include email, calendar, notes, to do lists etc. This is similar to Google who have a primary focus on web services and of course launched Google+ as a (second) attempt to compete with social networking sites such as Facebook. Their previous service, Buzz, was far from successful. So would Apple try to create a social network to compete with Facebook and Google+?
With Shared Photostreams they have created the ability to share photo content with other iPhone/iPad users. This is similar to a social network as you can comment on, or like, photos (sound familiar). But this
feature is limited on the computer and doesn't include a 'profile page' etc. that would expect from a social network. The iMessage service is Apple device specific messaging but again this performs one of the tasks required of a social network and simply replaces SMS messages for iPhone users messaging each other.
Their iOS operating system for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch and OS X Mountain Lion for their computers integrate with Facebook and Twitter already. And Apple have tried before to create a social network - Ping - was a music orientated network built within iTunes to help users share music. But this already happend on existing social networking sites, and users often had concerns over their privacy. Who want's to publish online every track they buy from iTunes. No one used to stand over your shoulder when you picked up a CD in HMV or Woolworths!
Based on Apple's previous trend to keep services limited to it's own hardware (iTunes being a notable exception) it is hard to believe that a social network would build any momentum in this cross platform world where Facebook lets you communicate over any device to anyone else using different platform. Would Apple end up competing with device specific services like BBM? Not a great move for the future.
Bottom line is no one needs or wants another social network, especially one that would not be cross-platform or webpage based. And it would not help Apple sell hardware. What Apple could do is integrate more of the existing social networks, such as Google+, into it's iOS and OS X operating systems to make their products more flexible (like Android devices, which can share content to millions* of services)
*millions is probably an exaggeration.
